Using old soil mixes

[7george]

Hey guys, how do you utilize or recycle the old soil taken out of pots? Do you rty to extract usable components and reuse those again or just through everything away? What techniques do you use for that?

I just try to reuse rocks picking those out. The rest goes to the garden most often.

[ElieEstephane]

I reuse my old soil as a filler for big pots like agaves, aloes, opuntias... i don't use it on smaller pots because it usually has too much salt deposits

[DaveW]

Some of my friends reclaim the grit by washing the soil off in a bucket and keep stirring and pouring the water away, rather like panning for gold! In the case of peat mixes the peat usually floats to the top and so can be skimmed off.

I used to know a chap who reused his potting soil by just rejuvenating it with fertiliser, after a good leaching that would work OK with mineral mixes. Also some put it outside in a heap for a year and let the rain leach it clean again. The problem of reuse is if you don't sterilise it any pathogens that possibly killed the last plant will be carried forward to the new plant. Also the heap in the open outdoors will tend to pick up weed seed's, therefore sterilisation is best to get rid of these before use, because covering the heap to stop seeds landing on it would stop the rain leaching it.

[RichR]

I don't bother with trying to reuse for my cacti. It's too much work. It usually gets dumped somewhere in the yard or garden that needs soil.

[cactushobbyman]

If I was into show plants, new cactus mix each time I repot. So I reuse my soil and it is always interesting to see what sprouts up after repotting. I had an Ariocarpus come up once and let's not forget about Kalanchoe appearing out of nowhere.

[mmcavall]

I bake all used mixes in the oven to kill root mealybugs. Then I use different sieves to re-classify the ingredients according to their size. I wash all fractions and let them dry. This way I reutilize all grit and gravel I have, but I discard soil and sand. Good gravel is not easy to find, sieve and wash, so I wouldn't like to throw it away when repoting plants.